Courtauld Gallery Refurbishment

Fabulous reopening of the refurbished Courtauld Gallery. Goodness I had missed it.

The galleries had gained some useful new spaces including a lovely new Bloomsbury Room shown here which brings together paintings, Omega workshop furniture and African masks collected by Roger Fry. It was painted in Charleston Farmhouse colours. There is also a new space which was currently showing photographs and a new shop in the basement which now feels more spacious and airy.

They have also taken the opportunity to do a rehang of the collection, moving the oldest works upstairs and showing pieces in a better chronological order. They have also opened up the top gallery which had been the Great Room of the Royal Academy where the annual show used to be held. You get a much better sense of how the room would have looked. I liked the touch that all the room labels told you what the room had been used for in previous incarnations.

Two other highlights include the newly commissioned work by Cecily Brown for the top of the magnificent oval staircase and the cleaning and conservation of their great Botticelli altarpiece. I look forward to learning more about any new discoveries about the latter.

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